2023 Spring/Summer
2020 Spring
- CONGRATULATIONS TO DR. JONATHAN WILSON who successfully defended his doctoral thesis in Comparative Biomedical Sciences! Jonny is now a data analyst at Mckinsey Consultants. We miss you Jonny and wish you well on your future endeavors.
- Fareen Hisamuddin and Lilian Cheatham have been doing undergraduate research in the lab with Kimberly Archbold and Juliana Hoyos.
- Jeffrey Haydu, a T32 NIH research fellow with the Georgia Veterinary Scholarship Program, did research with doctoral student Kimberly Arnold in attempts to standardize and ELISA protocol for Leishmania panamensis infection in dogs.
- Bryna Wilson, an NSF Population Biology of Infectious Disease REU student from Grove City College, did research with Juliana Hoyos on trypanosome infections in kissing bugs.
- Samantha Voicheck, an EEB undergraduate from Princeton University came to the lab to do undergraduate thesis research on cytokine profiles in dogs in relation to body condition and health.
- CONGRATULATIONS TO DR. KAYLEE ARNOLD who successfully defended her doctoral thesis in Ecology! Kaylee will be starting a post-doc at Washington University in January 2023!!! We will miss you tremendously and wish you well on your future endeavors.
- Congratulations to Jonny Wilson for advancing to PhD candidacy in Comparative Pathobiology!
- Congratulations to Anecia Gentles for winning a Bat Conservation International Fellowship for her work in Madagascar bat disease ecology!
- Samantha Behrend, a T32 NIH research fellow with the Georgia Veterinary Scholarship Program, did summer research on the phylogenetics of canine distemper virus in raccoons with Jonny Wilson.
- Congratulations to Yaravi Suarez (Didi!) who graduated with an MS in Pathobiology! Didi is now working at the UGA Genomics Facility.
- Welcome to Dra. Kimberly Archbold, a veterinarian from Panama who will be doing her doctoral degree on the ecology of Chagas and Leishmania infection in domestic dogs.
- Welcome to Juliana Hoyos, MSc, first year ecology student in the IDEAS program at the Odum School of Ecology coadvised by Dr. Sonia Altizer. Juliana is from Cali, Colombia. Juliana will be working on Chagas disease ecology in changing landscapes in Panama.
- Congratulations to Kaylee Arnold, who won the Ecological Society of America's Trailblazer Award! The Trailblazer award 'seeks to acknowledge a graduate student’s innovative and scholarly research in the field of ecology. This award highlights graduate research that introduces a new original idea and/or uses novel methods to address ecological problems that are of particular significance to the scientific community. The recipients of the Innovative Graduate Research will present a 20-minute talk on their research during the Trailblazing Students at ESA event.' We so look forward to Kaylee's talk at the ESA 2021 meeting!
- Welcome to Anecia Gentles, first year ecology student in the IDEAS program at the Odum School of Ecology
- Congratulations to Kaylee Arnold for winning Best Graduate Student presentation for her work on the ecology of kissing bug gut microbiomes at the 2020 Entomological Society of America Conference!
- Congratulations to our 2020 Visiting Scholar Johan Manuel Calderón for successfully defending his PhD at Universidad de los Andes under the direction of Dr. Camila Gonzalez.
- Congratulations to Kaylee Arnold for being a finalist for Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Gilliam Graduate Fellowship.
- Kaylee Arnold accepted to present an oral presentation at Ecological Society of America's annual conference (virtual).
- Congratulations to Kaylee Arnold for receiving an IDEAS small grant to continue her dissertation research and an IDEAS fellowship extension award that will provide an additional year of RA support.
- Congratulations to Maria Luisa Muller Theissen for receiving an IDEAS fellowship extension award that will provide an additional year of RA support.
2020 Spring
- Kaylee Arnold will attend the Genomics of Disease in Wildlife workshop at Colorado State University (now postponed to 2021 die to COVID-19).
- Congratulations to Kaylee Arnold for present at American Society for Microbiology's Microbe conference (virtual) in March. Also, accepted to present a poster at the 13th Health Disparities conference (canceled due to COVID-19).
- Kaylee Arnold received the Ford Foundation Fellowship Honorable Mention award and was the co-coordinator of the Odum School of Ecology's 26th annual Graduate Student Symposium celebrated in January.
Dr. Christina Varian, PhD in Veterinary Pathology.
2019 Fall
- Congratulations to Dr. Christina Varian for graduating with her PhD in Veterinary Pathology. Christina studied food webs in palm tree crowns and how food web structure in these palm trees influenced Chagas disease vector abundance and infection!!!
- Welcome to Isaac Julio, a Biology major from the University of the Ozarks (and from Panama!!) for a 3 week internship in our laboratory.
- Congratulations to lab alumni Dr. Mauricio Seguel, currently a post-doctoral research associate in the laboratory of Dr. Vanessa Ezenwa, for accepting a a tenure-track assistant professor position at the University of Guelph College of Veterinary Medicine!
- Welcome to Marina Pellegrino da Silva, 5th year veterinary student from Universidade de Sao Paulo doing a research internship in our lab until the end of January
- Welcome to Dr. Jonathan Wilson, DVM Cambridge '19, our newest lab member. Jonny is interested in cross scale mechanisms of zoonotic disease spillover.
Dr. Annie Page-Karjian DVM, PhD !!!!
2018 Fall/2019 Spring
2018 Spring/Summer
2017 Spring
2016 Fall
2016 Spring/Summer
2015 Fall
2015 Summer
2014 Fall and 2015 Spring
2014 Spring/Summer
2013 Fall
2013 Spring/Summer
2012 Fall
2012 Spring/Summer
Fall 2011
- Congratulations to Dr. Jusun Hwang who accepted a job with the Wildlife Conservation Society's Wildlife Health Program in Asia as a veterinary technical advisor to support the design and implementation of a wildlife bio-surveillance network in Viet Nam, Cambodia, and Lao PDR as part of a three year United States Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) Wildlife Surveillance Project funded through the United States Department of Defense, Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP).
- Congratulations to Kaylee Arnold for getting an Honorable Mention for the Ford Fellowship Graduate Research Program!
- Congratulations to Yaravi Suarez for receiving a LACSI summer research grant to embark on seed research on leishmaniasis and deforestation in Panama!
2018 Spring/Summer
- Congratulations to Dr. Mauricio Seguel, who successfully defended his PhD. Mauricio is now a post-doctoral scholar in the laboratory of Dr. Vanessa Ezenwa of the Odum School of Ecology !
2017 Spring
- Congratulations to Kaylee Arnold who received an 2017 Innovative and Interdisciplinary Research Grant from the UGA Graduate School and the Odum School Small Grant!
- Mauricio Seguel and his Guafo Island team succesfully completed four months of field work at Guafo Island, in the Chilean Patagonia. Check out their project website to know more about their research www.guafoislandscience.com/
- The article by Mauricio Seguel and Dr Nicole Gottdenker on hookworm infection in fur seals has been selected for the cover of the Journal "Veterinary Pathology" .. check the cover photograph here journals.sagepub.com/toc/vetb/54/2
2016 Fall
- Dr Nicole Gottdenker participated in field work at oil palm plantations with lab alumni Diana Erazo. Their work focus in the role of human modified landscapes in the dynamics of vector borne diseases.
- Dr. Odsuren Sukhbaatar, an MD from Mongolia doing her PhD at the University of Nagasaki Institute for Tropical Medicine, just spent a month with us doing a laboratory rotation. She helped us set up a leishmania ELISA diagnostic assay in domestic dogs.
- Welcome to Alejandra Millan, our new research technician! We are so happy to have her on board to help us get it done!
- Welcome to Kaylee Arnold who is our newest doctoral student in Interdisciplinary Disease Ecology Across Scales (http://ideas.ecology.uga.edu/) program, She will be co-mentored by Dr. Michael Strand.
- Wecome Alexandra Catano, a visiting undergraduate biology student from EAFIT University in Medellin, Colombia. Alexandra will be working alongside Drs. Nicole Gottdenker and Mauricio Seguel.
2016 Spring/Summer
- Dr. Jusun (AKA 'Liae' Hwang) successfully defended her PhD on the disease ecology of feral cats in April 2016, Congratulations, Jusun!!
- We wish the best for Dr. Annie Page, PhD 2015, who just started her new position as an Assistant Professor/Research Scientist at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute!
- Christina Varian received an Explorer's Club Exploration Fund Grant for the projects“Influences of food web dynamics on Chagas disease transmission in Central America.”
- Congratulations to Mauricio Seguel for his Morris Animal Foundation fellowship for the project "Host and Environmental factors driving hookworm induced mortality in an isolated fur seal population"
- Congratulations to Christina Varian for obtaining a Fulbright scholarship for her studies in Panama to study food webs in Attalea palms in relation to Chagas disease vectors in changing landscapes!!!
- Congratulations to Christina Varian for receiving and Interdisciplinary and Integrative Research Grant from UGA Graduate School!
- Congratulations to Mauricio Seguel for receiving a UGA Graduate School Dissertation Completion Award!
- Welcome undergraduate Honor student Susan Brands and PhD student Diana Erazo from Los Andes University in Bogota, Colombia to the Gottdenker Lab!
- Mauricio Seguel will be conducting field studies on fur seals at Guafo Island, Chilean Patagonia some info on this project at https://sites.google.com/site/mauriciosegueldvm/home/research-projects-and-pathology-service
- Congratulations to Jordyn Whitfield, who was just accepted into the University of Georgia, College of Veterinary Medicine, Class of 2020!
2015 Fall
- Mauricio Seguel passes all parts of his American College of Veterinary Pathologists Examination and is now a Board Certified Veterinary Pathologist! Congratulations, Mauricio!
- Christina Varian receives 2nd place graduate student poster in the UGA Science of Veterinary Medicine Research Symposium.
- Congratulations to Christina Varian, who has received a National Geographic Society Young Explorers award to work on the impact of anthropogenic land use change on food webs of Attalea palms in relation to Chagas disease transmission!!!
- Mauricio Seguel has received a grant in aid-of-research from the Society for Marine Mammalogy!
2015 Summer
- Nicole Gottdenker, Christina Varian, and Karen Wu are traveling to Panama this summer to collect data and samples for their ecoepidemiology project!
- Mauricio Seguel is featured as an Amazing Student at UGA. Check him out! http://www.uga.edu/amazing/profile/seguel-mauricio/
- We welcome Karen Wu, 2nd year veterinary student and Georgia Veterinary Scholars Program Summer Scholar. She will be working with us on our collaborative UGA/CDC/Gorgas ecoepidemiology project using domestic dogs as sentinels for Chagas disease and leishmaniasis across land use gradients in Panama.
- We also welcome Natalie Ryan Winn, independent study student, and Alison McWhorter Anderson, CURO Honors fellow, to the lab this summer!
- UGA CURO Honors Fellow Jordyn Whitfield is back in the lab after a Maymester in Australia and New Zealand!
2014 Fall and 2015 Spring
- Annie Page-Karjian successfully defended her PhD and graduated this May! She is now DVM, PhD! (or Dr^2) Congratulations Annie!
- Annie Page-Karjian was awarded the Dennis Sikes Award for Experimental Pathology!
- In collaboration with Drs. Julie Velasquez Runk and Dr. Susan Tanner (anthropology), Dr. Susan Wagner Robb (public health), Caitlin Mertzluff (grad student in geography) the GRASP program at CDC, and the Parasitology Dept. of the Gorgas Institute, Panama, our lab received a 2-year collaborative UGA-CDC Seed Grant for our project: "Integrating Anthropology, Ecoepidemiology, and Veterinary Science to Define Drivers of Vector-Borne Zoonotic Disease Transmission in Changing Landscapes". In this project, we will use domestic dogs as sentinels for Trypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania infection in human communities across a gradient of landscape disturbance.
- Congratulations to Mauricio Seguel for receiving a Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid of Research Award to study disease ecology of South American fur seals and hookworm infection on Guafo Island, Chile!
- Congratulations to Christina Varian for receiving a Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid of Research Award to work on food web structure of the Attalea butyracea palm in relation to the Chagas disease vector Rhodnius pallescens!
- Annie Page-Karjian won 3rd place in the student poster competition at the 2014 Annual Conference of the Association of Amphibian and Reptilian Veterinarians with her poster, Severe disseminated fibropapillomatosis in a rehabilitating loggerhead sea turtle.
- Congratulations to Annie Page-Karjian and her husband Paul on the birth of their baby boy Noah!
- Mauricio Seguel is doing a crowdfunding project for his dissertation research on South American Fur Seals. Check it out at https://experiment.com/projects/studying-south-american-fur-seals-in-northern-patagonia-chile
2014 Spring/Summer
- Annie Page-Karjian is featured as an Amazing Student on the UGA web page! Check her out at http://uga.edu/amazing/profile/page-karjian-annie/ !
- Darlisha Owens from Grambling State University and Nick Means from Oklahoma State University worked with us on this summer as part of the NSF Population Biology of Infectious Disease Program in collaboration with Dr. Travis Glenn and Troy Kieran of Environmental Health Sciences.They worked on developing next generation sequencing techniques for the detection of blood meals and pathogens in kissing bug reservoirs of Chagas disease.
- Carmen Mancia, a veterinary student at St. George's University, was a Georgia Veterinary Scholar with us this summer, working in collaboration with Dr. Annie Page-Karjian on detecting environmental transmission of fibropapillomavirus in green see turtles.
- Nicole Gottdenker and Christina Varian traveled to Panama and Christina got started on her first season of doctoral field work investigating food webs in Attalea palms working with the Gorgas Memorial Institute and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
- Mauricio Seguel traveled to the Marine Mammal Center in California, to do necropsies on marine mammals.
- Annie Page-Karjian won 1st place and a travel award in an abstract competition hosted by the UGA Student Chapter of the Wildlife Disease Association.
2013 Fall
- An article co-authored by Annie Page-Karjian, Development of genomic resource for a thraustrochytrid pathogen and investigation of temperature influences on gene expression, has been published in Plos One!!
- Mauricio Seguel wins Best Poster Award at Veterinary Research Day at the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine!
- Christina Varian and Mauricio Seguel both receive LACSI Graduate Student Travel awards to do their research. Congratulations!
- Nicole Gottdenker traveled to Brasilia to attend the 1st International Worskhop on Anthropization and Vector Borne Disease in Amazonia: Chagas disease as a Model System.
- Jusun (AKA 'Liae') Hwang moved back to Korea to start her field PhD research on feral cat disease transmission in urban ecosystems.
2013 Spring/Summer
- Annie Page-Karjian won the Best Student Poster Award at this summer's Annual International Conference of the Wildlife Disease Association!
- Christina Varian received the Short Term Fellowship with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute!
- Annie Page-Karjian received an AAZV Wild Animal Research Fund Award to fund her research project, Investigating chelonid fibropapilloma-associated herpesvirus in symptomatic and asymptomatic infected green sea turtles! We are very proud of you, Annie!
- Congratulations, Annie Page-Karjian, for receiving a UGA Travel Award to attend the 2013 Sea Turtle Medicine and Rehabilitation Workshop at James Cook University in Australia!
- Congratulations to Mauricio Seguel for receiving the IAAAM (International Association of Aquatic Animal Medicine) Travel Award to attend their meeting and present his work on fur seal disease!
- Way to go Annie Page-Karjian, for winning a Sigma Xi Grants-In-Aid of Research Award to study fibropapillomatosis in sea turtles!
- Carolina Cabrera from Kalamazoo College worked with us on this summer as part of the NSF Population Biology of Infectious Disease Program. She modeled effects of acquired immunity on Chagas disase transmission.
- Nicole Woller worked with us as part of the Georgia Veterinary Scholars Program on urbanization and disease transmission in raccoon populations.
2012 Fall
- Congratulations Jusun Hwang for winning the Best Graduate Student Poster Award at the Meeting of the Southeastern Branch of the American Society of Microbiology!
- Congratulations to Christina Varian for winning the Best Graduate Student Poster Award at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine Research Symposium!
- Mauricio Seguel and Christina Varian joined the lab. Welcome!
2012 Spring/Summer
- Congratulations to Ronke Olojowesiku, honors undergraduate student, for receiving a CURO 2012 Summer Research Fellowship! Ronke will be studying the ecology of Chagas disease in Panama.
- Congratulations to Jusun Hwang, PhD student, for receiving a grant from the American Museum of Natural History and the Edward J. Noble Foundation for raccoon parvovirus research on St. Catherine's Island!!
- Congratulations to Karen Christ! Karen, a former undergrad student in the lab, has been accepted into UGA College of Veterinary Medicine's class of 2016. Way to go, Karen!
Fall 2011
- Congratulations to Ming Fung, MS student, for winning second place in the oral presentation category of the UGA 2011 Science of Veterinary Medicine Symposium!
- Annie Page-Karjian joined the lab. Welcome!
